Citizens’ reality

News in Brief

As everyone knows, one of Extinction Rebellion’s original demands in 2018 was to make the big decisions about dealing with climate change through a Citizens’ Assembly.

Our French correspondent, Marc Morgan, points out that France’s experiment with a Citizens’ Assembly on climate has concluded this summer with a new law on climate change, the ‘Law on Climate and Resilience’.

The assembly, 150 randomly-selected people, met in 2019 – 2020, heard evidence and produced 146 practical proposals, some of them far-reaching.

Marc writes: ‘These proposals have been considerably watered down, and in some cases abandoned altogether, in the face of pressure from various lobbies and employers’ consortia.’

XR Scotland abandoned the 100-person Scottish Citizens’ Assembly on climate a year ago because of the way it was being set up.